The American Mindset is geared toward defending Empire....

[RadioRaheem84]

Debating with a rather insolent and shrewd person over the US role in the Cold War. My argument was that the US engaged in the Cold War as a means of protecting it's business and political interests rather than defending democracy abroad. I also said that it preached a form capitalism that they were not practicing themselves at the time.

According to my opponent, the US was fighting an ideological war against the Soviet Union and that was it. It was not anything more than riff between two competing ideologies. Little does he leave out the countless clashes between non-Soviet aligned nations and leaders and the US, but he also fails to miss the point that the US was just protecting their interests. I said that he doesn't see it that way because he leaves the Soviet Union out of the equation by not realizing that the USSR was just the biggest opponent of US business interests abroad.

It's amazing the level of propaganda Americans exhibit when defending their nation. Their logic flies out the window and is replaced by a certain logic that defends and presupposes US Empire. Even other people who jumped onto the debate could not get around the simple notion that the US intervened in many nations to protect its interests during the Cold War. Apparently, to them that's just stating the obvious.

US Empire is presupposed in their minds as a given. It's not even questioned. If you call them out on Chile' they'll say "all we did was oppose Allende in misinformation campaigns, we didn't support (fund) the coup". Well so what! What was the CIA doing involved in the Chilean elections like that if not influencing it to protect US interests!

They don't see anything wrong with it. The point is too not have the covert ops look like as if they were too monstrous and damaging to the image of the US in the world.

[BogdanV]

Well, I personally can't speak in regards to US citizens as I don't live in the USA, but its really obvious, regardless of ideology that America viewed the USSR as a competitor, a rival, on economic grounds, of course, because the planned economies from "socialist" countries were incompatible with the "democratic", free market system.

Socialist countries were closed systems, with the flow of goods and capital highly regulated. It was hard, if not impossible for US corporations to establish themselves within such frameworks.

This being the situation, the expansion of the planed economy was a real threat for western capitalism, so everything had to be done to shrink and destroy the "socialist" system.

Also, in regards to the arms race, those were indeed golden days for weapons manufacturers. It was in their interest to keep the threat of war going, so that the demand wouldn't shrink.
Something similar to this is happening today with Iraq and Afghanistan, apart from the oil question.

Anyway, the main disease these days seems to be the "don't give a fuck" syndrome.People won't listen to you because they don't care. They don't care about the government, the state, or anything that's affecting their life. People are more interested to see who won the MTV Music Awards or watch porn than anything else, and sadly, it seems that this syndrome affects all types of people, regardless of education, knowledge or intelligence.

[Tatarin]

My argument was that the US engaged in the Cold War as a means of protecting it's business and political interests rather than defending democracy abroad.

Don't forget that they were not only protecting, they were (and still are) actively fighting for a capitalist world. Why else were they so interested in Vietnam or Chile (countries where they were actively engaged in)?

Apparently, to them that's just stating the obvious.

Because they have time and time again been subjected to the propaganda that these "interests" are democracy and freedom of speech and belief and so on. Sure, economic ties are discussed, but only from the view that both nations agree, not that the US pushes an imperialist agenda.

Once people start finding out that the "interests" equals "give me your wealth and you get to be leader of your nation", then maybe they will start questioning if they want to live in such a world.

[Invincible Summer]

Anyway, the main disease these days seems to be the "don't give a fuck" syndrome.People won't listen to you because they don't care. They don't care about the government, the state, or anything that's affecting their life. People are more interested to see who won the MTV Music Awards or watch porn than anything else, and sadly, it seems that this syndrome affects all types of people, regardless of education, knowledge or intelligence.

I'm not sure if that's entirely true. I think the main problem is the mainstream media bludgeoning this terribly incorrect image of socialism/communism into people's heads, and therefore once you mention anything that sounds remotely similar to what Glenn Beck or someone else has decried as "socialist" or "communist," they don't want to listen to you.

Also, McCarthy did a real good job of making a whole generation of Americans believe that communists were godless, evil scum. This generation teaches their children the same. When people see your ideas as 'wrong' or "incorrect," they're probably not going to listen to you. Hell, we commies do that to bougies enough

I think it's sort of condescending to say that people are truly apathetic about the world around them and prefer to vegetate